ROME – Italy faced political paralysis Monday as results in crucial national elections showed no clear front-runner, leaving the country with an unprecedented hung Parliament. The uncertainty bodes ill for the nation’s efforts to pass the tough reforms it needs to snuff out its economic crisis and reassure jittery markets.
The chaotic election scenes in Rome sent the Nikkei stock average down 263.71 points, or 2.26 percent, from Monday to close at 11,398.81. The chaos also spilled across the Atlantic to send the Dow Jones index plunging more than 200 points in its sharpest drop since November.
A major factor in the results was the astonishing vote haul of comic-turned-political leader Beppe Grillo, whose 5 Star Movement has capitalized on a wave of voter disgust with the ruling political class.
That has coupled with the surprise return as a political force of billionaire media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who was driven from the premiership at the end of 2011, to roil the Italian ballot. Berlusconi’s alliance fell short of center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani’s alliance in Parliament’s lower house and edged by their rivals in the Senate.
Bersani’s coalition finished with 29.54 percent to the Berlusconi bloc’s 29.18 percent, which with the winner’s premium will hand it a majority in the lower house.
But in the 315-seat Senate, neither coalition could muster a majority, with Berlusconi’s grouping winning 116 seats and Bersani’s netting 113.
The decisions Italy’s government makes over the next several months promise to have a deep impact on whether Europe can decisively stem its financial crisis. As the eurozone’s third-largest economy, its problems can rattle the bloc’s market confidence and analysts have worried it could fall back into old spending habits.
The unfolding uncertainty raised the possibility of new elections in the coming months, the worst possible outcome for markets that are looking to Italy to stay the course with painful but necessary reform.
While Italy’s postwar history has largely been one of revolving-door governments, it has never seen a hung Parliament.
“This has never happened before,” said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. He predicted such a swirl of political chaos that new elections may need to be called as soon as the new legislature chooses the nation’s next president this spring.
The Italian election has been one of the most fluid in the last two decades thanks to the emergence of Grillo’s 5 Star Movement, which has throbbed with anger at politics as usual. The movement came against a backdrop of harsh austerity measures imposed by technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti — who has fared miserably in the elections.
Many voters did not cast ballots, and a low turnout is generally seen as penalizing established parties. The turnout, at under 75 percent — in a nation where it has historically been above 80 percent — was the lowest in national elections since the republic was formed after World War II.
Disgust with traditional party politics likely turned off voters, although snow and rain — this was Italy’s first national vote during winter — could also have been a factor.
Bersani, a former communist, has reform credentials as the architect of a series of liberalization measures and has shown a willingness to join with Monti, if necessary. But he could be hamstrung by more leftwing elements in his party.
His party would have had to win both houses to form a stable government, and given the uncertainty of possible alliances, a clear picture of prospects for a new Italian government could take days. It is all but impossible that Bersani will team up in a “grand coalition” with his archenemy, Berlusconi.
Grillo’s camp also played down the prospect of cooperation with the former leader, who has been embroiled in sex and corruption scandals.
The elections spelled a “victory for a Euroskeptic Italy in the face of the policy of economic rigor,” said an editorial in the nation’s leading daily, Corriere della Sera.
“This is fantastic! We will be an extraordinary force!” Grillo said Monday, warning mainstream politicians they would “only last a few more months.”
“We’ll have 110 people in Parliament and we’ll be millions outside,” said the campaigner, who has packed city squares nationwide with his rallies.
“It is clear to everyone that this is a very delicate situation for the country,” Bersani said late Monday.
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